ITS ALL ABOUT PRODUCTIVITY NOT THE FIGURE

The world bank and other donors are pressurizing Bangladesh to curtail government jobs saying its too big for a poor country. Probably that is the cause behind the government decision to stop recruitments, which has aroused much resentment. According to an information, 60,000 posts of officers and employees are still vacant in different government offices.

But the point is are these jobs required? The civil administration sadly follows the work culture of yester years. The government offices have many unnecessary posts such as peons, stenographers, personal assistants, whereas technology can replace them. In private sector jobs are slowly being molded to produce better productivity. You will hardly find any unnecessary posts. Techonology has replaced them. But there is still a great digital divide in the civil administration. Many bureaucrats are not PC and internet savvy. In government sector the productivity is not increasing probably because of the traditional appraisal system which deals much with seniority rather than actual productivity. Performance based appraisal system is the call of the hour to ensure better productivity.

Above all I think Bangladesh should invest more in e-governance. India has been able to bring down corruption and increase productivity with the help of e-governance. And the initiatives of the government should not be to lay off en-masse, but to increase quality of service with existing workforce ensuring productivity and aided by technology.